Previously, the Gmail interface had two separate (yet similar) toolbars: one on the bottom left (for currently selected message threads) and another top right (for the currently open conversation). That made even simple tasks like deleting a message frustrating. “Sound confusing? It was,” a member of Google’s team admitted in Wednesday’s blog post.

Now, thanks to the use of CSS3 transitions and transforms, Gmail’s iPad Web interface more closely resembles that of Apple’s Mail app. Selected messages stack on top of one another; a single menu for controlling them now sits exclusively in the top right corner of the screen.

You can play around with the updated Gmail interface by going to http://www.gmail.com in Safari on your iPad. If you're interested in the technology underlying the new interface, there's an intriguing post on Google's Code blog that explains it all.

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